Posted in family
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Doesn't it feel great to be able to cross things off your to-do list? Well, two weeks ago I was able to cross a doozy off my life's to-do list, and that was spend a Passport2Purity weekend with my pre-teen daughter. Next up is get a tattoo, but I think I'll wait until the baby is born and I've recovered from my c-section until I work on that one. I'll let you decide whether I'm kidding or not....
When Annaleigh was about eight or so, Big D was ordering something from Family Life and at the last minute threw a Passport2Purity kit into his on-line shopping cart as well. He's impulsive like that. When I got the package in the mail, I opened the box and nearly fainted. I knew what Passport2Purity was because I had friends who had older daughters and had used this product and sung its praises. Was I now ready to take my only daughter and oldest child away to talk to her about all of this???? After perusing it a bit, I took a deep sigh of relief, as I realized it was recommended for kids from about the ages of 11-15. Sweet....I had at least three years. Whew. I stored the box on a shelf and forgot about it. Meanwhile I spent the next three years fielding questions and situations that would come up like the time we were visiting a friend in the hospital and CNN was on the TV of the cafeteria, and they were featuring the top story of California's lift on the gay marriage ban. There was also the time that an older girl in her girl scout troop told Annaleigh about her teenage sister's unplanned pregnancy. To top it all off, once I had to ward off an angry neighbor girl's mother because Annaleigh told her friend that Santa Claus was actually just a nice man, probably from Turkey, who put gold in unmarried girls' stockings so that people would marry them and that he died about 1800 years ago. A week later this same friend explained to Annaleigh where babies came from in fairly explicit detail for a nine year-old. Now, where is that Passport2Purity box....? Annaleigh turned twelve this past September, and one day while dusting my bookshelves, the title loomed out at me. I knew it was time. My little girl was blossoming into a young lady right before mine....and everyone else's...eyes. Plus, I was in my third trimester of pregnancy. If I didn't do it with her now, I'd have to take along a suckling, which I'm sure the authors wouldn't recommend. So, off we went to talk about modesty, dating, peer pressure, and....gulp!....the birds and the bees. The authors recommend you go somewhere away from home, overnight, and special. We decided to go into Nashville and stay near the Opry Mills Mall, which has lots of shopping and fun places to eat. On Friday night we ate at the Aquarium Restaurant, which actually has a huge tropical aquarium right in the middle of the dining area. Imagine that. I let Annaleigh order off the adult menu, since after all, she looks older than twelve, I was about to take her back to the hotel and discuss grown-up stuff, and she was wearing earrings that looked like chandeliers...
She got the chicken fried chicken, which was nice of her, considering we were eating right smack in front of the fish tank. She only was able to finish half of it, and I told her that I would never order that much food for her again. I ordered a shrimp salad, because I like to taunt fish...
...and I ate almost all of it because, like you well know, I'm eating for two these days. And then on our full stomachs, we dug in...
Basically, the Raineys couldn't make it any easier. All of the hard stuff is on a set of about four CDs that you listen to and then fill in answers and such into a pre-done journal. It is all biblically-based and well put together. There are five sessions, and at some point, you stop the CDs and do little hands-on projects. See? Here's our project table...
The construction paper project was demonstrating how once you've used glue (gotten yourself into a serious, one-on-one, dating relationship) that you can take the pieces apart, but that they are now messy and a bit damaged. Clever, huh? And then the puzzle exercise demonstrated....well, I can't remember exactly, but it was clever too...trust me. They were a lot of fun and invoked some really good discussion.
I can guarantee that your pre-teen will remember the lessons from these projects more vividly that just having you say, "I don't think you should be dating right now," or "Don't act inappropriately around people of the opposite sex." All in all, it was a great weekend. The number one priority was making sure and encouraging your child to be in a right relationship with Christ and to open up the communication lines for what's coming during the coming teen years. I just have one minor suggestion. If you can at all avoid being eight months pregnant for this weekend, please do so. You will have more energy and be more comfortable, and the birds and bees talk will be slightly less...well, ummm...awkward.
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Posted by Susan
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